Sprite and Thunderstorm seen from Space - Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space: A...

Sprite and Thunderstorm seen from Space - Red Sprites and Thunderstorm seen from space: A sprite (upper left, in the atmosphere) seen from the International Space Station (ISS) in August 2015. This electric discharge rises 100 km above the surface of the Earth - The Moon is the bright spot in the sky, to the right of the sprite. Lights from Dallas, Texas appear in the foreground - This photo shows the spring's tendrils reaching as much as 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. Sprites are major electrical discharges, but they are not lightning in the usual sense. Instead, they are a cold plasma phenomenon without the extremely hot temperatures of lightning that we see underneath thunderstorms. Red sprites are more like the discharge of a fluorescent tube. Bursts of sprite energy are thought to occur during most large thunderstorm events. They were first photographed in 1989